The Age of Invention

In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt addressed the American Historical Association to call for American history to be written as compelling stories of literary quality. Editor Allen Johnson of Yale University responded by publishing the Chronicles of America series: 50 succinct volumes on regional and thematic American history. These books, intended for secondary schools and college students, are expository works of American history composed by competent historians in the 1920's, well before the special pleading and upending of social norms typical of histories after 1970. This series is focused on the mainstream of American political life and leadership from its initial volumes on Native Americans and European colonists to its final volumes on Woodrow Wilson, Canada, and the Hispanic Republics to our South.

In volume #37 of the Chronicles of America, Holland Thompson records the remarkable history of technological innovation in America, including the inventors of the steamboat, the telephone, electric engines, and the airplane. The mechanical genius of these great Americans transformed the world and ushered in a new age of speed, convenience, and enterprise that marks a radical division in lifestyles before and after. He links his heroic tale to our colonial history and the character of Benjamin Franklin, whose leisurely experiments set the stage of our scientific and inventive heritage.